You know, one of THOSE birthdays where you look back & wonder, “How did I get here?” Where you look ahead and wonder, “What does the future hold in store?” and “What do I have left that I’m still committed to doing?”

Those who know me well know I’m not slowing down any time soon.

I did a 620 mile un-assisted bicycle tour this summer.

I’m still running a health coaching practice & contributing to the world that way.

I’m still an active member of Rotary International; giving back to the world in other ways.

I’m a Board Member of our local NAWBO (National Association of Woman Business Owners); giving back to women in business both locally and nationally.

And more.

All of that is to point out that life is what you make of it.

When you take good care of yourself, you have the energy and the audacity to continue to look ahead with anticipation.

So, for me, I still anticipate my long delayed European Bicycle Tour.

I still plan many firsts & I’m still adding items to my bucket list.

So, how does one take care of themselves in order to live healthfully till the end?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Remember that it’s a marathon. Actually it’s an Ultra! (Me… I’m committed to another 40 years!)
2. Take care of your emotional wellbeing: relax, play, meditiate, love, do meaningful things.
3. Remember there are 4 kinds of exercise: strength, endurance (aerobic), flexibility (stretching) and balance. Be sure to work ALL of these multiple times per week. You need to keep flexible, balanced and stong. 
4. Eat a predominantly whole food plant-based diet.
5. Remember that God (or Nature) made FOOD for nutrition, not pills.

Understand that the body is self-healing and self-correcting. If you’re not well, find the source of the dis-ease and correct it so you can heal. (The source of the problem is never a shortage of medication!) 

Be cautious about allowing doctors to do standard tests on you solely because you are a certain age or certain gender (or combination). Sometimes these tests can cause complications or injury and not yield valuable data. 

Continue to contribute to others and society.

Set and achieve new goals until the day you die.

You can, indeed, continue to live powerfully throughout life. However, like everything else, it only happens with intention and planning.

If you have concerns that your health & your body won’t support you to get there, let’s talk.

The post Live Fully Till the Day You Die appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

If they are telling you to eat fresh churned butter and grass-fed beef and stay away from soy, you might want to look a little deeper. What you’ll likely find is that their evidence is ‘anecdotal;’ what they’ve seen with clients. But here’s the thing: the people that succeed stay with them and those that don’t will usually do something else. You know that’s true: if you go see someone & the treatment doesn’t work, you usually go somewhere else. Very few people will stay with someone; be it a doctor or health coach, a business consultant or anyone else if they don’t get the results they’re looking for. People get tired of hitting their heads against the wall!

If they’ve written books, likely you’ll find the major references for their books are their own articles with their own opinions and theories but little real science in the way of published journal articles. (This also says nothing about the quality of any studies quoted; an additional level of scrutiny that must be applied in order to really evaluate the truth.

And NONE of this says anything about the long-term effect of eating the saturated fat known to stiffen our arteries and cause heart disease and strokes (and much more).

I’ve done the research looking at both sides, and if you’ll allow me to, I’ll summarize the truth about soy, dairy & your hormones for you. (Actually, I’ll summarize it anyway and it’ll be here later even if you don’t read it now!)

The Issue with Dairy: A Hormone Pill in the Form of Food

Dairy contains estrogen, progesterone, growth hormone and more. Dairy is bovine growth fluid much the same as mother’s milk is human growth fluid. Here’s the difference: mother’s milk basically triples a baby weight in a year. Cow’s milk turns a 50-lb. calf into a 1000 lb. cow in a year; that’s a 20-fold increase! Now granted, genetics and volume play a role in that, but if you look around the world at cultures that don’t consume dairy (eg. Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, and others) you find the thinnest people in the world. (Studies also show that when these people move to the West, they look like us in less than 10 years. So, no, it isn’t genetic.)

In addition, studies (references available on request) show that human estrogen levels spike in the hours after people consume dairy. So if you’re feeding a pre-pubescent child dairy, they are getting a spike in estrogen each time and it’s contributing to the laying down of additional fat (a known function of estrogen; to make body stores for pregnancy and nursing), the development of female secondary sex characteristics and more. (I’ll discuss other issues that also impact hormones in future blogs).

It also does the same to adult women (and men. . . man-boobs!) though the difference may not be as noticeable in the reproductive years. But once we get into peri-menopause, our progesterone levels have significantly diminished and the ratio between estrogen & progesterone is thought to be the major cause of hot flashes, though the entire mechanism is not entirely worked out.

Cheese: A High Potency Hormone in the Form of Food

“But I don’t drink milk,” I can hear you saying. Remember that cheese is concentrated milk and 1 oz. of cheese will act similarly as about 1 cup of fluid milk. Add the yogurt, cream in your late, and other dairy; including hidden dairy in processed foods you are likely consuming and you have a significant issue.

When I cut dairy out, as hard as it was, it was the single thing that made the most difference both for weight loss (Read my story) and diminishing the hot flashes. Now, I honestly don’t even miss it. Add a plant-strong diet, some exercise and more things I’ll discuss in upcoming blogs and the difference will be profound.

Soy: Put the Misconception to Rest

The Paleo & Keto pushers of the world want you to know soy is evil! If it’s so evil, I wonder why the 2 ½ billion people in Southeast Asia, most of whom live longer healthier lives than us, never got the memo!

Note that everything I say here pertains to organic soy only! Unfortunately, in this country, if it’s not organic or at least labeled non-GMO, it’s likely genetically modified. (If you have questions about the dangers of GMOs, leave a comment below & if I get enough response, I’ll write about it. It’s not something I want to spend the time & space on unless I’m clear people want more info.)

Genistein Is NOT Estrogen

Soy contains genistein, a phytochemical that’s capable of binding to estrogen receptors on your cells. (Men also have estrogen receptors.) Receptor sites can be likened to a lock & key mechanism. So, once the ‘key’ is in the door, then whatever is in the key can act on the cell. Herein lies the misconception because it turns out that although soy binds to the estrogen sites, it doesn’t act like estrogen in the cell. It doesn’t cause the laying down of fat, it doesn’t contribute to secondary sex characteristics or do other things estrogen does. In fact, it does just the opposite. Studies done on women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer show that they have fewer re-occurrences & metastasis if they are consuming soy. (references available)

In addition, when you look at things like hormone-related cancers (breast, prostate, ovarian, uterine, GI tract, thyroid) countries of the world that consume soy have a much lower rate than countries like the U.S. that consume little. (It’s also thought that the high consumption of dairy is contributory).

The Advantage of Soy

So, effectively, you have a compound that occupies the estrogen site on the cell so that your own estrogen (which continues to be made albeit in smaller quantities) can’t bind to the cell as readily. Now, if you’re eating enough fiber, as the liver metabolizes the excess, the body can excrete it. However, if you’re not (which most Americans don’t), as the estrogen metabolites move down the digestive tract, they will get resorbed and made into more estrogen!

An additional thing I’ll mention about soy is the same thing I talk about with grains and nuts; less processed is always better. So edamame and tempeh are better than soy sauce and tofu. Much the same a nuts are better than nut-butters. The reason for this is that when you pulverize a plant cell, it’s akin to pre-digesting it; it leaves all the nutrients available and you’re going to absorb every last gram of fat. Because we don’t crush the cell walls of plants very readily with our teeth, we don’t absorb all the fat. Thus, effectively, whole foods are less ‘fattening’ than processed foods.

So, in conclusion, one of the best things you can do to help balance your hormones; whether you’re suffering from peri-menopause issues, PMS, PCOS or any other related issue is to start consuming soy and eliminating dairy.

Leave a comment below.

The post The Truth About Soy, Dairy & Your Hormones appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

A lot of times, I talk to people about the things they know they need to do for their health and they make such a big deal out of the cacophony of things they ‘should’ do that they never seem to get started. Sound familiar?

I’d like to offer an alternative approach: Don’t commit to never eating a chocolate chip cookie ever again! Don’t tell yourself, “This is gonna be it.”

Just simply take a first simple step: before you go to bed, TONIGHT make sure you have a healthy breakfast available in the morning. I suggest oatmeal. You can even do overnight refrigerator oatmeal. Mix it all up before bed, toss it in the frig & viola! It’s done in the morning!

Now you’ve had a good nutritious breakfast and you can pat yourself on the back for having done something good for yourself (Hint: you CAN eat this if you’re diabetic, and it’s GOOD for you! I’ll explain it all later). Now take it a step further and have a healthy salad for lunch (No, don’t load it up a couple ounces of high fat dressing; just a sprinkle of a high quality of balsamic vinegar.) Pat yourself on the back again and continue your progress.

Maybe you need to clean all the junk that calls your name out of cupboards, dig the walking or running shoes out from the back of the closet or more. Acknowledge what you ARE doing, put plans in place and let that be the fuel for your progress.

And I’ll help you out!

Maybe you know (or suspect) your hormones are off balance, maybe you’re overweight or your out of shape or all of the above.

Beginning October 7^th, I’m offering a FREE 5-DAY Jump-Start Your Weight-Loss & Hormone Balance Program. Here’s how it works: When you register, you’ll get a little booklet that will detail a shopping & stocking up guide to help you prepare. Then before the event starts, I’ll also send you out some simple recipes. On October 7^th, we hit the ground running, literally and figuratively. Each day, you’ll get a video in your email in-box where I’ll address a key area about balancing hormones without pills and potions, how the world’s healthiest people eat, starting an exercise program and more.

There will also be a private Facebook group where you can get support & ask questions.

This is a plant-based program that is modeled after the way the World’s healthiest cultures eat; a program that is supported by the best science. No, we won’t balance your hormones or reverse disease in 5 days, but we;ll get you’on the road’ and give you ideas and options about where to go from there.

I hope you’ll join me!

In addition, for those of you who are local & want to add a short outdoor aerobic workout to your routine, you can join me for 2 morning hikes & 2 morning bicycle rides in the Los Osos/Morro Bay area, October 7-10. These will be quick 40-50 minute hikes or rides that will start at a designated meeting place promptly at 7:30AM and get you started for your day.

Read more      Register      

The post Start Simply or Simply Start appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

It had been a solution that seemed easy; I was having physical symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, night sweats, etc.); mental-emotional symptoms too (feeling stressed, flying ‘off the handle’ at insignificant things, etc.). Bio-identicals, I reasoned, should be less dangerous than commercial preparations, should have less side-effects, should keep me more even-keeled and handle the physical symptoms as well. A local M.D. who is into “Anti-Aging Medicine” concurred that this was a good choice. 

But truth be told, I hadn’t done the research I now recommend my clients routinely do (or hire me to do) to get all the facts on the table before making a decision about medications or procedures. When I later DID the research I found that (1) There is some limited information that suggests bio-identical hormone creams MAY be less hazardous but there are no large research studies proving it is so. (2) There is little or no science to support what is considered to be a ‘therapeutic level.’ (The levels are really only a guess, based on blood tests. However, there is NO level that could be considered correct since  peri-menopausal and menopausal women have naturally occurring hormone levels that are far lower than what doctors are trying to achieve to control symptoms.). Thus the amount I was getting MAY have been too high but there was no way to know if lowering it would make a difference or if I’d maybe even continue to gain weight and have the symptoms return too! (3) Research indicates that many of the “minor side effects,” such as the 20 lb. weight gain I experienced, also happen with bio-identical hormone creams.

Long story short, I stopped the therapy. It was also during this time that I made the decision to stop eating poultry and dairy and convert to the whole-food plant-based eating I now recommend to others. Over the next several weeks, my symptoms initially returned when I went off the hormones but then abated, for the most part and I began losing the weight I had gained and my hormone balance began to return.

I also had more “side-effects” of my new diet: (1) My cholesterol level decreased from 205 to 137 in just about 6 weeks. (2) Chronic congestion & post-nasal drip was eliminated when I went off of dairy. (3) The natural hormone balancing effects of being off of dairy and almost all animal feeds (all of which have naturally occurring estrogens) also helped relieve some of the mental-emotional symptoms I was having. (A large portion of this was also related to family & business stressors. This needed to be, and was addressed in other ways.)

I can’t say that losing the weight was easy but I can say it worked. Here are the bullet points of what got me through and what I now recommend and coach others in:

1. Whole food plant-based eating with emphasis of minimal fats.
2. Increasing exercise.
3. Working to restore gut microbiome (thus the hormone balance it brings).
4. Working on the causes of mental-emotional stress along with the use of meditation or mindfulness strategies.
5. Eating some specific foods to naturally balance hormones.
6. Specific tweaks to the diet to keep it low calorie, high energy.

The great thing about all this is that this way of eating is far easier to maintain than a diet like Keto or ultra-low calorie where you’re either starving yourself or changing your diet so much that you can never maintain it. People typically can only sustain keto or other diets over a finite period and often regain the weight afterward. In contrast, this way of eating can become a way of life that is far easier to maintain. At this point, I’ve been eating this way for more than 8 years and have not regained significant weight.

Intrigued about all this? Would you jump in & try it for just 5 DAYS?? NOW; before the holidays & get yourself set up to look FABULOUS this holiday season?! Join my FREE “Jumpstart Your Weight Loss & Hormone Balance” 5 day program October 7-11! You can do ANYTHING for 5 days. Give it a try. Watch for more upcoming info here on my blog and on social media SOON!

The post “How Did THAT Happen?” A Story of Weight-Control appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

She dreads seeing her doctor; who she dutifully visits yearly. She understands the inherent dangers of the medications they prescribe. Medications that she has, thus far avoided. She wanted some diet & lifestyle advice.

“Did you know that the ‘big breakthrough study’ of the Mediterranean Diet from a few years ago has been retracted?” I inquired. I got a blank stare.

Yes, the study, originally published in 2013, was retracted in June of 2018 because it came out that the randomization process was not random at all! Couples who signed up were put on the same diet as was a full village of people! So now they can only say there appears to be a correlation between the diet and less strokes or heart attacks; not that the diet diminishes the likelihood of either.

“And further, did you know that the study REALLY only showed a 1% difference in outcome; not a 30% as reported in the media?” Another blank stare.

A total of 288 primary-outcome events occurred: 96 in the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil (3.8%), 83 in the group assigned to a Mediterranean diet with nuts (3.4%), and 109 in the control group (4.4%). (NEJM)

“How do they get away with saying that was 30%?” She asked.

 It has to do with “relative difference” (3.8 vs.4.4) rather than absolute difference (less than 1%). This is a slight-of-hand used in medicine all the time. The relative risk of something can be 2% and a drug lowers it to 1%; the actual difference is only 1%, yet it is usually reported as 50%! This is a key consideration for almost all procedures & drugs; a consideration YOU, as the patient never hear about!

“So, what can you tell me about the diet you recommend and how that’s likely to change things for me?” She asked.

Well, there are no guarantees. What we can say is that people, world-wide who eat a whole food plant-based diet with little to no added fat (Blue zones areas of the world) have extremely low rates of heart disease, cancer and most of the other diseases that plague Western societies. We can also say that studies of these people show they DO eat animal flesh but eat less than 10% calories from protein daily (they use small amounts of meat for flavoring). The majority of their diet is made up of complex carbohydrate (sweet potatoes, yams, quinoa, millet, brown rice, beans, etc.) and lots of fruits & veggies.

The other things that I assured my client: (1) When you eat low fat plant-based, you’ll likely lose weight without counting calories as long as you limit nuts & seeds and move your body regularly. (2) When you cut out dairy, eat enough fiber and add a little minimally processed (organic) soy (Edamame, tofu or tempe) you’ll help your body better process and balance your hormones and the hot flashes are more likely to subside naturally. (And if not, there is far more we can do that doesn’t require hormones, even if they are called ‘natural.’)

She left with a commitment to make the changes I recommended. One more small victory.  

(Note: The above is a compilation of several women; not one specific person.) 

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